130 JOUHNAL AND PROCEEDINGS 



the diameter of the globe we inhabit, but fortunately we are 93,- 

 000,000 miles away and escape their consuming breath. 



Now all life that we are acquainted with depends upon the 

 constancy of the heat we receive from the sun. Any great changes 

 of temperature, which in this case would not be due to weather or 

 climatic conditions, but to excess in radiation of the sun's lieat, 

 w^ould mean certain death to all mankind on the face of the earth. 

 Consequentl}^ the end of the world, as far as we are concerned, 

 would surely follow from an increase of solar radiation. Most 

 astronomers, therefore, look to such a catastrophe as we are con- 

 sidering arising from this quarter. 



Before we pursue the argument further, or adduce proofs in 

 support of this theorj^ it is well for us to take the true bearings of 

 tile sun's position in the scheme of God's infinite creation. What 

 is the sun, which is the source of all light, heat and life to the 

 earth we dwell upon, as well as the planets that belong to the solar 

 system ? The sun is no more than an ordinary star, and, con- 

 versely, the stars are suns. It is most essential that this great 

 truth should be fully grasped and its significance properly esti- 

 mated. In his "Night Thoughts," the poet Young has beauti- 

 fully and accurately described this conclusion: 



One sun by day, 



By night ten thousand shine, 



And light us deep into the Deity. 



When the so-called fixed stars are critically examined by the 

 spectroscope, we find they are composed of precisely the same ele- 

 ments that form our own sun, and that these very substances also 

 enter into the constitution of both suns and stars alike. No fact 

 has been more clearly demonstrated in recent years than this close 

 relationship of sun and stars. 



When one of our friends "shuffle off this mortal coil," we 

 mi'^s the accustomed form and familiar nod, but the old world goes 

 on just the same. Precisely the same thing happens in the sky. 

 When a star disappears, or in reality that particular world comes 

 to an end, its bright face is missed, but the myriads of other com- 

 panion stars shine on as if nothing has happened. 



